There’s a lot to be said about pop culture in Japan: and a lot of people will say it’s the pop culture that helped make Japan such a driving force in the world market. In some cases, such as the game market, Japan was the only contender for a long period of time. And nowadays, with manga and anime being household names, it’s obvious Japan’s pop-culture is wide spread. Who hasn’t heard of Naruto, Bleach, One Piece, DragonBall, Inuyasha, Sailor Moon, AKB48, Perfume, Pokemon, Mario, The Legend of Zelda, Game Boy, and so on just to name a few.
This past week upon a trip across the southern half of Honshu, we ended up in Tokyo (where else?). And when you visit Tokyo, nerd or not, you have to visit the technology, pop-culture hub, Akihabara. Toted as nerd and geek heaven back home (rural Pennsylvania), I was surprised at how… uniform it was. All the buildings seem to have familiar layouts and similar attractions. I don’t know how many times I was asked to see a maid-café. Were the Japanese we went with that eager to show off something usually portrayed as embarrassing?
It was nice to relax and play some games after running around on trains all day. Found some similar games to Rock Band and Guitar Hero. I would’ve liked to explore more (only saw stores from the front and entrance and entered 3), to get a more rounded view of the area. I only got see game centers, really (and forced purikura).
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